Central Lakes Getaway Part 4: Bag the Crags

 Thursday 7th June 2018

After a cooked full English breakfast, I packed up & checked out of the Mary Mount Hotel, and headed south, further into the Borrowdale valley. Today I would be heading to a new part of the Lake District I hadn't visited before - the Langstrath valley.

Hidden away as an off-shoot of the Borrowdale valley, Langstrath is the home of one small village - Stonethwaite, along with a few natural beauty spots.

Due to its isolated nature, its a pretty quiet area considering its close proximity to the tourist hotspots of Keswick & Derwentwater - just 6 miles away.

I turned off the Borrowdale road heading towards Stonethwaite. The road widened from its single lane track to a point when a sizable layby was available, with a couple of cars already parked up. I did my usual routine & changed into my booted, slung on my rucksack, and continued along the road on foot.

I soon entered the village, its old, whitewashed cottages complimented by slate-walled farm buildings.

It was also full of greenery, from the gardens, trees & grass-lined verge.

Stonethwaite Farm, from which the village grew, was bought by the monks of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire in 1195, and going into the 14th century was a thriving dairy farm. This was at the discontent of the rival monks from Furness Abbey in Barrow

Walking throught the village, at the top was the Langstrath Coutnry Inn - I eyed that up as a potential watering hole to stop at the end of the walk.

I continued along the road, back out of the village as the road passed by farmers fields. I then spotted a gate with a sign for the Stonethwaite Farm campsite - the path turned off here into the fields of the campsite, which is situated on the banks of Langstrath Beck. It was pretty quiet - but there were a couple of tents pitched.

The path headed straight through the campsite & to a gate at the far end, continuing to follow the beck. The path narrowed, twisted and turned as it went through woodland, over rocky outcrops to a sharp turn where the beck flowed from the south. There was quite a drop to the waters edge, the beck now coursing its way down through gullies - naturally filtering it to crystal clear water.

A footbridge crossed the beck not too far along, and the path the headed by the side of the beck once again along the bottom of the Langstrath valley. The sheer cliffs of Eagle Crag towering above.

The sun beat down as I headed up the valley. It was a lovely walk in fantastic scenery. An idyllic & un-spoilt landscape.

A dry stone wall appeared between the path & the beck, and the path moved closer along the bottom of the cliffs, while the beck moved more central to the bottom of the valley through the fields.

I soon reached a large step-stile in a intersecting wall and cross over. On the other side were dozens of herdwick sheep & lambs, just chilling out in the sunshine. I slowly walked between them trying not to disturb them where possible. It was like the end scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Birds' - but with sheep. A few got up & moved out of the way, and pretty soon I was walking with my own entourage of Herdwicks.

I would follow this route for a mile or two until I reached a footbridge which lead to Stake Pass - this is where I would turn off the path.

This was Wainwright's longer routes onto Sergeant Crag - 4½ miles from Stonethwaite to the summit.

I paused at the footbridge for some refreshment & to top up my sun tan lotion and then aimed for the prominent outcrop of Brown Crags on the top the ridge and began walking up. There was no path from here.

The lower slopes were dotted with young trees surrounded by wooden fences. I tried to keep to a 45 degree angle of ascent with the slope so the climb wasn't so hard on the knees. I saw a large tree standing out on its own, and thought it would be a good place for another breather - but as I got closer spotted a small family of Herdwicks who had the same idea, and were taking shelter from the sun. I continued climbing.

I eventually reached the crags, and with it the top of the ridge. The terrain flattened out. It was covered with thick grasses, and was boggy in places. All of a sudden I caught something moving just ahead.. Deer!

Learning from yesterday, I quickly crouched down & got my camera out, quickly changed some settings and took a couple of shots. The Deer lingered slightly longer than those from the previous day - they may very well have been the same Deer as yesterdays location was only a couple of miles across the mountain ridges to the east.

I watched them for a few moments before, once again, they disappeared over a grassy knoll.

I got up and headed over to where they had been, again thinking I could spot them, but when I got there they had disappeared - no trace.

Sergeant's Crag however was not far along the ridge to the north, I started walking and pretty soon joined a path which took me up along the ridge, dodging some pretty nasty looking bogs, and up onto the summit crags.

The terrain turned slightly rockier underfoot as I approached the top, and in no time at all I was clambering onto the bare summit rocks of #129 - Sergeant's Crag - 1,873 ft.

I stopped for a snack and my celebratory can of Coke, before looking to my next peak - Eagle Crag, whose dominating face towered over the Langstrath valley. This would be a return journey from my current position.

The path headed north west down off Sergeant's Crag, to traverse a marshy depression between the two peaks. Sticking to the stone path helped keep my boots dry, and a wall appeared which ran in the direction of Eagle's Crag as well.

It was only ½ a mile between the tops of the two peaks. The wall then turned alongside the path and the terrain narrowed. Soon enough the wall stopped at a steep rocky outcrop, but luckily there were a couple of foot holds - just enough to climb up, over the wall where the path the carried on winding its way up the crag & onto the summit.(#130 - Eagle Crag - 1,650 ft).

Two down - one to go. I retraced my steps back over Sergeant's Crag, and onwards to where I stopped the deer earlier in the day. My aim from here was to head up the grassy slopes & round the head of the valley over Long Crag & join the Greenup Edge path which runs north to Ullscarf. There was no path to follow.

It was tough going, slogging my way up the grassy slopes, the sun beating down. It felt quite remote here - no signs of civilisation for miles - this place belonged to nature - to the sheep & deer.I was taking sips of water throughout the hike, making sure to keep hydrated. I also remembered to reapply sun cream when needed.

I reached the rocky outcrop of Long Crag at the head of the Greenup valley - a smaller offshoot of Langstrath.

Carrying on for another 10 - 15 minutes or so I would reach Greenup Edge on the col between Ullscarf & High Raise. A short time later I spotted a cairn - but this was quite a well-engineered cairn - pretty in its own way - and was not the usual mound of stones.

Looking on, I spotted a few other cairns of similar build. At least I had found signs of civilisation - this was Greenup!

Greenup is one of many mountain crossroads in Cumbria, an old pack horse route - a throwback to before motorised transport. The Greenup Pass linked Borrowdale in the west to Grasmere in the east, but also had a route running north to south.

I followed the cairns, checking my map, headed due north & and joined the path to Ullscarf. The path was easy to follow, running roughly parallel to old fence posts running across the fell and it was vital I followed it as there were clearly some bad marshlands to be negotiated.

From here though, the higher slopes of the fell was generally a large grassy hill of an otherwise featureless upland which ran straight up to the mound of stones marking the summit, with an old, rusted fence post sticking out of the top. (#131 - Ullscarf - 2,382 ft).

From Ullscarf's summit, I uneventfully retraced my steps once again back to the Greenup col, and took the path north west dropping into the Greenup valley by way of Lining Crag. It was at the top of this crag that I crossed paths with the first people I had seen in hours - they were heading up. They let on & I gave a cheery hello back, before tackling the steep rocky path running down the crag & then running alongside Greenup Gill, and back to Langstrath.

It was late afternoon when I walked back into Stonethwaite & called into the Langstrath COuntry Inn for a quick after-walk refreshment.

I had nowhere to check in to tonight - my plan was to wild camp, and I had picked what I was hoping would be a cracking spot.

I drove out of Stonethwaite & over the Honister Pass to Buttermere, where I turned up the Newlands valley to Newlands hause, the highest point of the pass which had a large layby - my free parking for the night.

My camp site was not a Wainwright - but was part of the larger fell of Robinson. Tonight I would be pitching on High Snockrigg. It was just under a 1 mile walk, from Newlands hause to the minor summit, but that minor summit, at 1726 feet high had some amazing views over the Buttermere valley.

*** Interestingly, there are a few Wainwright peaks that are of a lower altitude than High Snockrigg - including a neighbour not far down the valley, Rannerdale Knotts, at just 1,165 foot! ***

The path was a sharp, steep & stony ascent to start with, which felt quite punishing on the legs, considering the 13+ miles I'd just walked.

But after the initial stony climb, the path levelled onto smoother grassy slopes, and in about 30 minutes from leaving my car I was at the summit cairn, and found a great spot to pitch my tent.

I had recently bought some new Vango light-weight camping pans, and had brought the smaller pot with me, so gave it it's trial run, cooking up a tin of Sweet & Sour Chicken with basmati rice for dinner. All the while enjoying some beers & watching a quite amazing sunset over the Irish Sea before settling down for the night. A spectacular way to end yet another amazing day.

Mark